TCU's Sonny Dykes on matchup with Michigan's smash-mouth offense: 'We'll have some tricks up our sleeves'

Michigan Wolverines football is a smash-mouth team built on physicality, especially in the run game. TCU, on the other hand, has a better passing attack on paper and says it has more speed. The Big 12 is that way, in general, with offenses taking more of the headlines than defenses.

That’s a reason why the Fiesta Bowl matchup between Michigan and TCU is interesting — the contrasting styles.

Michigan lined up with seven offensive linemen and two tight ends for seven snaps in the Big Ten championship game against Purdue, scoring 2 touchdowns in that formation. TCU runs a 3-3-5 base defense. Yes, the Horned Frogs run a lot of four-lineman looks. However, playing a Big Ten team is different, let alone the most physical one in the conference. At the same time, as TCU players and coaches have said this week, Michigan hasn’t seen a defense like the Horned Frogs.

“If you take a look at the evolution of the 3-3-5, it really started out as a defense designed to stop spread teams,” TCU head coach Sonny Dykes said. “Well, Michigan is not really a spread team. We’re gonna see a little bit different looks from these guys.

“When you look at the 3-3-5, the idea was to get more speed on the field, get more defensive backs on the field. Really started out as a third-down defense, third and long. People started to run it.”

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The TCU head coach has actually played against 3-3-5 defenses and tried to run the ball right at it. He didn’t have as much success as he thought he would, he said.

“All of a sudden, it kind of started to be the en vogue thing we started to see on third and long,” Dykes continued. “Well, then, some teams started to run it every down. And I can remember as a play caller going, okay, this is going to be a lot of fun playing against this defense. We’re going to get in 12 personnel. We’re going to run the ball.

“And all of a sudden, it was a little bit more difficult maybe than I thought it was going to be. Because what happens is, you’ve got layers to that defense, and there are a lot of guys in the second and third level. There are eight players. There’s a lot of different guys who can get involved in run fits.

“What happens now is you don’t really know where they’re coming from. In a traditional defense, where you know where everybody is, you have these linemen, they stay on tracks. Somebody shows up and they block him. They have a pretty good idea of who they’re going to block, based on your alignment. I think in a 3-3-5, you’ve got a little bit more flexibility in where guys are going to come from, and who’s going to show up, and where they’re coming from.”

Dykes said he’s confident in defensive coordinator Joe Gillespie and his players on that side of the ball going up against Michigan, which ranks fifth nationally with 243 rushing yards per game.

The Horned Frogs held Texas to 28 rushing yards, dominating the line of scrimmage in a 17-10 win. Dykes and Gillespie have both pointed to that game as a blueprint.

“He’s done a tremendous job of taking this defense, molding it into an every-down defense, and then also being able to stop the run,” Dykes said of Gillespite. “I think you go back and look at our game against Texas, [Doak Walker Award winning running back] Bijan Robinson is one of the premier running backs in the country.

“So we’ve played against teams that are good running the ball.”

Michigan is “a different challenge,” though, he admitted.

“I do believe we’re probably facing the best offensive line in college football,” Dykes said of the Wolverines’ Joe Moore Award winning unit. “I think that group is really, really good. They’ve got a good collection of individual players, but I think they play very well together as a group. So it will be a big challenge for us.

However, he added: “But I think we’ll have some tricks up our sleeves.”